


all the joy that is mine

by Leocht (mayibetriumphant)



Category: Star Wars, Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Legends - All Media Types
Genre: Mace is really trying not to play favorites but he absolutely has one, Space!reasons my son is crying, also it’s got baby wan, and baby-laba and mace with hair, minor OC appearance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-30
Updated: 2020-04-30
Packaged: 2021-03-01 16:48:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,661
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23920330
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mayibetriumphant/pseuds/Leocht
Summary: CRISIS IN THE CRÈCHE!Jedi Master MACE WINDU embarks on his first solo diplomatic mission after a crime most foul is committed against one of the Order’s own.
Relationships: Depa Billaba & Obi-Wan Kenobi, Depa Billaba and Mace Windu
Comments: 7
Kudos: 81





	all the joy that is mine

**Author's Note:**

> And I'll sing you the songs of the rainbow,  
> Whisper all the joy that is mine.  
> The leaves will bow down when you walk by,  
> And morning bells will chime.  
> -For Baby, John Denver  
> ————  
> “My next lesson: Yoda had come to take the rattle away, and I—with my infant’s instinctive selfishness—had refused to release it, holding on with both my hands and all I could summon of the Force. The rattle broke—to my infant mind, a tragedy like the end of a world—for that had been Yoda’s way of introducing the Jedi law of nonattachment: holding too tightly to what we love will destroy it.  
> And break our hearts as well.”  
> -Shatterpoint, Matthew Stover

“Master Windu, we need you in the creche.”

Mace puts down his first cup of caf for the day. It’s barely noon. What could possibly have happened already? “What for?”

“...it’s better if you come see for yourself.” The crèche minder is barely holding back giggles.

“Give me ten minutes.” He downs his drink and pulls on his jacket. So much for finally having a calm morning. No rest for the weary, he supposes.

—

The crèche is set up like a large beehive, with each section dedicated to individual clans. Bear Clan’s pod is towards the middle, and caters to human and near-human children. After a cursory eye scan, the door slides open. 

Surprisingly, it’s not in chaos. Most of the children are scattered throughout the playroom, minding their business. Some trying to float ever more blocks in the air. 

“Master Windu, this way.”

The minder, a tall Mirialan woman, is doing her level best to keep a serious expression on her face. It makes her nose wrinkle. 

“I was under the impression that it was an emergency.”

“It is for your little one.”

Mace suppresses the urge to roll his eyes. It’s undignified. “What has Deepika done now?” She’s a sweet child, but...difficult at times. It’s always a why, who, but, or a ‘how come’ with her no matter what. But that could be more because she’s five, and less because she’s intentionally combative.

“Just come see.” 

She leads him to the sleeping quarters, where a human boy with tousled red hair sits on a stool, wearing a stormy expression that might have been intimidating if he didn’t have such chubby cheeks. 

“Hello, little one.”

He jumps to his feet, full of the righteous fury that only such small younglings were able to conjure at the drop of a hat. “Master Win-du I didn’t do  _ anything _ ! It was Deepa that did it! She stole from me, master!”

Mace taps his foot impatiently. “What is your name?”

“Obi-Wan Kenobi. And she stole from me, but I got in trouble because I tried to get it back—“

“You’re just selfish and  _ mean! _ ” A tiny voice wails from somewhere else in the room. “Master Ybarra says we have to share our things!”

“Depa, come out.” Mace says sternly. “Hiding to avoid consequences is unbecoming of a young Jedi.”

She pokes her head out from under her covers, looking absolutely pitiful with her red nose and watery eyes. “He’s a big meanie. Oafy-Wan needs to learn how to share!”

“Stop calling me that!”

“Children, we’ve been over this. Deepika, would you like to take a turn on one of the thinking stools?” Ybarra scolds.

“...no, Master.”

“Come here.” Mace orders. He needs to stay neutral. There’s no reason to get the poor girl labeled as a teacher’s pet so early.

She sits on the floor beside him.

“No, you sit on a...thinking stool too.”

Depa sniffles pathetically, but does it. Only, Mace suspects, because he asked her to.

“Now—what is it that young Deepika stole from you?”

“My birthday! She took my birthday from me, Master Windu.”

“...your birthday.”

“Yes! We were doing activities and we had to say our birthdays and she took  _ mine _ !”

“Obi-Wan, many people in the galaxy share your birthday.”

Ybarra shrugs as if to indicate she already explained that.

“But she’s not sharing, she’s  _ stealing. _ Deepa is always in my business and taking my toys and trying to make me play with her, and now she’s taking my birthday from me too!”

Depa bursts into tears, and Mace steels himself. He will be impartial. He will  _ not  _ give into those big eyes again.

“Come walk with me, Obi-Wan.”

Mace’s former charge pauses in her sobbing long enough to stick her tongue out at him. Of course.

“Am I in trouble for getting mad?” The little boy asks quietly once they’re out of Depa’s earshot. 

“First of all, she prefers _Depa_. Second, tell me—why does it bother you when Deepika tries to include herself in your games?”

“It’s...not all the time. But she always wants to play, and sometimes I want her to leave me alone, but she won’t. She’s always in my business. My birthday was the last straw.”

The way he says it makes Mace think he’s just parroting a phrase from a minder. It’s adorable, but beside the point.

“Do you want to know what I think?”

“Yes, master.”

“ _ I  _ think it’s because she likes you.”

“Blech.”

“Obi-Wan,” Mace scolds. “She wants to be your friend. Does she do that to anyone else?”

“Mm, no. But I don’t think it’s because she wants to be my friend. If she wanted to be nice, she would listen to me.”

“And she should. I will tell her so. But Obi-Wan, did you think that maybe she wants to do everything you do and share your birthday to be like you?”

“I think she should just stay Depa. She was fun to play with when she was only Depa.”

“She isn’t trying to be mean, I promise you. But I’m going to go talk to her now about her behavior. Do you still want to be friends with her after all this?”

The little boy is quiet for a moment, in thought. “The Force says that we’re going to be around each other for a long, long time. I can be nice to make it easier.”

“Fair enough, big guy. You’re still going to have to apologize for making her cry. And she will apologize for calling you a mean name.”

“You promise she will?”

“I do. If not, tell me and I will speak with her again.”

“Thank you.”

Depa is still on her time out seat when they return, projecting sullenness at everyone around her. 

“Come with me now, Depa.” 

Obi-Wan sits back down on his own stool, unsure what to do with himself while they’re gone. Little Deepika refuses Mace’s offered hand, preferring to keep her arms crossed tight enough they’ll go numb. 

“Would you like to be carried? We’re going a little further away than I went with Obi-Wan.”

She thinks for a moment and uncrosses her arms. Mace takes that as a yes and puts her on his shoulders.

“Where are we going?”

“The Room of a Thousand Fountains.”

“Why?”

“There’s something I need to show you there.”

“But  _ why? _ I’ve seen all a thousand fountains a thousand times.”

“Be quiet for a moment and you’ll see.”

They settle in a quiet spot by a smaller, shallow pond. 

“Is this a punishment?”

“I want you to try to hold some of the water in your hands and water...that plant. Without the Force—just your hands.”

Depa makes a face at him and at the sad looking sapling, but tries anyway. It should be easy to do, right?

The older Jedi settles back and watches the poor child get more and more frustrated every time she rushes back and forth from the plant to the pond and back again. 

“Mace, I don’t like this. I don’t get it! Am I in trouble or not?” She looks like she’s going to burst into tears again. Whoops.

Mace goes to kneel beside her, and is tangentially aware of how much she’s grown since he turned her over to the crèche. “Watch what I do.” 

His former charge marvels as he keeps the pond water from trickling out between his fingers. He drops it back in and carefully arranges her hands into a bowl. “You must be gentle, Deepika. See, when you squish your hands, all the water pours out, and you don’t get any. But if you hold it softly and only squish your hands around it enough to keep it from all pouring out…”

“Yeah!” Depa carefully scoops up a handful of water, and very cautiously lets it out of her hands onto the baby tree. “And we can’t put  _ too  _ much water on the plant, or it drowns.”

“Precisely, Deepika.”

She stares the tree down like she’ll shake more answers from it. “I think I get it. I have to say sorry, right?”

“It’s what a good friend would do. And a good Jedi.”

“I want to be a good Jedi. I’m going to be the  _ best  _ Jedi, Mace.”

“You should also focus on being the best  _ you. _ ”

“I’m already a good me. Nobody else can be as good a me as me.”

Mace laughs. “True enough. Now, I believe you have a job to do back in your hall.”

She pouts. “Alright. Can I sit on your shoulders again?”

“Of course, youngling. Come on up.”

The Force itself seems to smile when she does, missing teeth and all. 

Tinges of amusement float by them as they walk back toward the crèche. Young Master Windu couldn’t be accused of playing favorites, no, but most of the Temple knew just who he intended to take on as a Padawan.

Depa is safely back on her own feet before any of her clan-mates notice and ask Mace for a piggyback ride too. No need for more conflict this afternoon.

Mace stands off to the side, only giving her a nod of encouragement when she goes to speak with her friend. 

“You fixed it?” Ybarra asks, half distracted by her new task of getting something gooey out of another child’s hair. Mace doesn’t envy her at all.

“I believe so. If there’s any more problems, let me know.”

“Well…” She gestures to the squirming youngling in her arms.

“Ybarra, absolutely not.”

“I jest, I jest.”

He bows a goodbye, but stops to steal a glance through the glass panel in the door. 

Deepika and little Kenobi stand a few feet apart for a moment before stiffly shaking hands and dissolving into laughter. He’s not sure what was so funny about that, but it brings a smile to his face anyway. 

_ We’re going to be around each other for a long, long time, indeed. _

**Author's Note:**

> Sure has been a while since I posted anything, huh? College, internship cancelled by the pandemic and a death in the family will do that. Anyway, I’m trying to get back on the horse with this updating stuff, so hopefully y’all will see more soon enough.  
> You can find me and some of the art I make for these stories on tumblr at diasporawar.tumblr.com/tagged/my-art; too.


End file.
